During his monthly residence at New York's 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden, Billy Joel, as he usually does, began his encore with his bouncy 1983 biggie, “Uptown Girl.” The song hit No. 3 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart and No. 2 on its adult contemporary chart at the time.

However, at a show on Aug. 7, Joel sang the song to a gal sitting down in the front row; the gal who appeared in that song's popular video thirty-one years ago: his former wife, model Christie Brinkley. Brinkley was sitting with their daughter, Sailor, at the concert.

At the time of the music video shoot, Joel was dating another supermodel, Elle McPherson. But after that relationship ended, Joel and Brinkley began dating. They were married from 1985-1994. The couple has remained friendly ever since.

According to WENN and a video posted on YouTube, the singer pointed to the camera crew to get a shot of Brinkley dancing and singing along. Brinkley later posted an Instagram of herself and Sailor with the caption: “He's still got it.”

Since 1958, Paul Revere has led The Raiders. Even as late as last year, the then-75-year-old was known for his boundless energy and endless jokes as he banged away on his keyboard with the custom ‘60s Ford Mustang front. Alas, his year-long battle with cancer has forced the charismatic dynamo into retirement, according to his Facebook page.

The band will now tour as Paul Revere's Raiders and Revere will remain busy with the group members as executive producer of their shows. The current Raiders features Revere's son on guitar, former Buckinghams powerhouse drummer Tommy Scheckel, and front man/guitarist Darren Dowler, who has been a Raider for the past decade (former singer Mark Lindsay, who sang on all the group's ‘60s and ‘70s hits, left the group in 1975).

In a Facebook message, Dowler said the group will release the final two songs to feature Revere in October, “We're Still Rocking” and “Still Hungry.”

“Paul Revere is one of the most genuine people and best mentors I know,” Dowler said. “He brought me into the group and rather than holding me back in any way, told me to go out on stage every night and shine as brightly as I could. I'll miss him every night on the stage, but will rock as hard as I can in tribute to the great rock star that he is. He's a very loved man by the entire band and much of the world.”

With hard rocking mid-1960s smashes like “Hungry,” “Kicks,” “Good Thing,” “Him Or Me, What's It Gonna Be” and “Just Like Me” (that reached No. 11 and is the only one of these pounding biggies not to make the Top 10), the group should have been a shoo-in for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but in that organization's infinite wisdom, they've never even been nominated for induction.

Former Grateful Dead singer-guitarist Bob Weir — who has lead his “other” band, RatDog, since 1995 after the death of The Dead's Jerry Garcia — canceled the RatDog tour he was to begin this week, according to RatDog's website. Weir and company played the Greek Theatre in L.A. on July 2.

In the post, the 66-year-old Weir gave no reason for the cancellation, only saying: “Circumstances have necessitated that all scheduled tour dates for Bob Weir & RatDog are being cancelled.”

Last year, Weir fell on stage forcing the cancellation of a few shows. His Grateful Dead and Further (an offshoot Dead band) bassist buddy Phil Lesh said last September that he'd been suffering from a strained shoulder.

Steve Smith writes a new Classic Pop, Rock and Country Music News column every week. Contact him by email at Classicpopmusicnews@gmail.com.